Nadal to miss Australian Open due to illness

Madrid, Spain (Sports Network) - Former world No. 1 Rafael Nadal announced
Friday he will not participate in the 2013 Australian Open due to a stomach
virus.

Nadal has been sidelined with a knee injury since his surprise second-round
Wimbledon exit to Lukas Rosol.

The Spaniard was forced to pull out of an exhibition tournament in Abu Dhabi
this week due to the illness.

"As my team and doctors say, the safest thing to do is to do things well and
this virus has delayed my plans of playing these weeks. I will have to wait
until the Acapulco tournament to compete again although I could consider to
play before at any other ATP event," Nadal said in a statement on his Facebook
page.

"My knee is much better and the rehabilitation process has gone well as
predicted by the doctors, but this virus didn't allow me to practice this past
week and therefore I am sorry to announce that I will not play in Doha and the
Australian Open, as we had initially scheduled."

The 11-time Grand Slam winner lost to Novak Djokovic in last year's Australian
Open.